2012 in Film

I couldn't decide how to divvy up this year's awards. Should I split the films into genres and rank them that way? Should I just put out a best and worst list of the 10 films that fit best into that category? Should I make up silly names and base it off silly things? I had a tough time deciding. I figured that the convention for 10 best/worst would be sufficient, so that's what's going to be done here.

I'll be the first to admit that there are still a great deal of films, probably both good and bad, that I still haven't seen. That's one of the disappointing things of living in Canada and not being a professional critic. Many of the December limited release films don't come out here until mid-January at the earliest, with a select few only getting a release in Toronto, not in Calgary. And, of course, I didn't see some of the year's earlier films, either. So, if the list is missing something that you saw and adored, that might be the reason. Or we just disagree. That's fine, too. We can disagree. Almost none of you will agree with my top pick. I'm aware of that before anyone tells me. I don't care.

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I actually enjoyed rise of the guardians for what it was. I don't know if Icould say it should replace a movie in the top ten for any other reason than just disinterest (which if was the case id have it replace the hobbit). But Ialsso don't really knowb what to take its place so yeah.

And id choose the avangers of batman. Even though it was partially fillmed in pittsburgh and Ialways love movies thbat are, it just felt too long and by the end like a chore to sit through.its not a bad movie but to me if you're tying it with another movie for a spot like the avengers id take the avengers over it.

I hope to see Les Miserables with the missus today. Got horrible reviews. Told my gang I want to see it anyway and one guy had a great response about the reviews he read. Things like, people hating Russel Crowe's "Cap'n Crunch" outfit. He states, "Captain Crunch's outfit is based on real uniforms. Sorry RC is wearing one! Another: the movie is a downer. Um, duh! And... they never stop singing! It's an opera!

Out of movies I have seen out of there (which is few) I agree except for hunger games. That movie felt so uninspired and bland without any sign of the interesting plays between the rich decadent society and the poor. Now its just a crappy romance :/

Not that I felt the books were great but the movie is definitely worse and since the 2nd and 3rd book will be terrible at least the first movie will look better then them.

I actually didn't enjoy Pitch Perfect.. sure the music was good but everything else about it was just paper thin and bland imo some of the comedy was good thanks to Rebel Wilson but overall it was just a MEH movie. And the group i went to see TDK:R with.. all thought it really HAULED ASS! at times.. there were just bits that didnt need to be there.

Nice list you have there! Too many movies for me to see on my budget but I've seena few on the list. My personal number 1 would be Lincoln but I might be biased because Lincoln is my 3rd favorite U.S. President :3

I see you mention SK3 as the bestest m ovie evaarr a lot. Are you serious or is it a running joke because it is an unbelievably horrible movie?

Beffudled Sheep:I see you mention SK3 as the bestest m ovie evaarr a lot. Are you serious or is it a running joke because it is an unbelievably horrible movie?

I can't say any more than I already have said. Feel free to jump to your own conclusion. If you want to take it off the list, there is still, technically, a Top 10.

Powereaver:I actually didn't enjoy Pitch Perfect.. sure the music was good but everything else about it was just paper thin and bland imo some of the comedy was good thanks to Rebel Wilson but overall it was just a MEH movie.

You and I can't be friends.

Harley Q:I'm actually going to have to watch scorpion king 3 now, it is everywhere, following me around, gosh darn it!

Please, please do. (And Pitch Perfect, which I think is my new obsession.)

Beffudled Sheep:I see you mention SK3 as the bestest m ovie evaarr a lot. Are you serious or is it a running joke because it is an unbelievably horrible movie?

I can't say any more than I already have said. Feel free to jump to your own conclusion. If you want to take it off the list, there is still, technically, a Top 10.

Powereaver:I actually didn't enjoy Pitch Perfect.. sure the music was good but everything else about it was just paper thin and bland imo some of the comedy was good thanks to Rebel Wilson but overall it was just a MEH movie.

You and I can't be friends.

Harley Q:I'm actually going to have to watch scorpion king 3 now, it is everywhere, following me around, gosh darn it!

Please, please do. (And Pitch Perfect, which I think is my new obsession.)

Well its just that the first 2 were meh at best and rather bad most of the time so im just slightly beffudled when mention of a 3rd one is heralded as the bestest evar. I haventseen it though so I cant judge it.

Shocksplicer:The Hunger Games was definitely the worst movie I saw this year

Why?

PsychedelicDiamond:Wait a minute! Here in Germany Cloud Atlas was released about two weeks after the American release. I remember it because i was really hyped for it and saw it as soon as i had the opportunity.

Huh. I thought it was almost all over the overseas territories that had a 2013 release date. Turns out about half of them already have it. "The more you know," right?

Beffudled Sheep:Well its just that the first 2 were meh at best and rather bad most of the time so im just slightly beffudled when mention of a 3rd one is heralded as the bestest evar. I haventseen it though so I cant judge it.

The second one was that "unbelievably horrible" movie, while #3 is the most fun I've had watching a movie.

Shocksplicer:The Hunger Games was definitely the worst movie I saw this year

Why?

PsychedelicDiamond:Wait a minute! Here in Germany Cloud Atlas was released about two weeks after the American release. I remember it because i was really hyped for it and saw it as soon as i had the opportunity.

Huh. I thought it was almost all over the overseas territories that had a 2013 release date. Turns out about half of them already have it. "The more you know," right?

Beffudled Sheep:Well its just that the first 2 were meh at best and rather bad most of the time so im just slightly beffudled when mention of a 3rd one is heralded as the bestest evar. I haventseen it though so I cant judge it.

The second one was that "unbelievably horrible" movie, while #3 is the most fun I've had watching a movie.

So shamefully, yet again, another year goes by in film where garbage is heralded as gold, and treasure is publicly viewed as little more than trash. Almost makes you want to stop watching all together.

Billy Zane is in it, too, and is by far the most enjoyable. Perlman only gets, like, 4 relatively scenes.

Got to love Perlman. Great actor, but the impressive thing is he was early on both smart and humble enough to understand he had a face that Hollywood would NOT buy, so he adopted the "beggars cant be choosers" method of role selection. Hes been in some horrible messes of films (Mutant Chronicals painfully comes to mind) yet hes always good for what he puts in.

No Twilight in the worst list..? Thats kinda surprising, but then again, I'm guessing you may not have seen it. Hunger Games being in the top ten? I cant see how that works. Not having read the book, I cant make a comparison, but as a film it kinda sucked. it was the basic premice for me. I cant see that society being perfectly ok with having a televised event where kids kill each other for the entertainment for the masses. Just watch Battle Royale instead, it works much better.

Pairing Avengers with DKR is a safe choice, I feel, but not one that works. Setting aside all fanboyism (Which I am not, about either Marvel or DC) I had a lot more fun with Avengers. Probably because I was expecting it to suck ass. yes, it had its flaws. It was far too Joss Whedony in places, and the whole second act was kinda pointless, but it was enjoyable. DKR on t'other hand... Even setting aside the knowledge that it would be nowhere near as good as Dark Knight, it just... It was a bloated garbled mess. Gaping plot holes, and even worse, being reduced to a finale that

. In retrospect, I can enjoy it, it does have some good points (mainly Anne Hathaway in that costume), but as a sequel to DK, it sucks.

I will agree with Pitch Perfect though. I only saw it because there was nothing else on that particular week (that I haven't already seen) and I dont know whether it was because I had zero expectations, but i really had fun with it. Despite some glaring cliches and its reverence for that 80s snoozefest the breakfast Club.

2012 was the best year for movies in a long time. I agree with a lot of your picks, plus these:

LooperA mind-bending time-travel movie with a neat premise and an unexpected level of moral complexity. It was almost creepy how well they made Joseph Gordon-Levitt look like a young Bruce Willis.

Premium RushWhat can I say, I like Gordon-Levitt, and he had a good year. In this little-noticed chase thriller, he plays a bike messenger in Manhattan on the run from a corrupt police detective. The bike stunt work is awesome, the story tight and exciting. If you are into bicycles at all, you should definitely see this movie.

DreddDon't mock me. All right, go ahead and mock me. But give this movie a chance. By telling a more economical, day-in-the-life story, it tells more about the screwed-up world of MegaCity One than the bloated mess Stallone made in the 90s, which tried to jam too much of the mythology into its running time ("Ooh, we gotta have a scene in the Cursed Earth!"). Good performances, well-done action scenes and impressive visuals. Fantastic electronic score, too.

I really couldn't understand how Hunger Games could make either list, but then I remember it's Marter I'm dealing with. Also I think you made a mistake is your Raven summary, unless "plot-ice" is some reference I'm not getting.

I really couldn't understand how Hunger Games could make either list, but then I remember it's Marter I'm dealing with. Also I think you made a mistake is your Raven summary, unless "plot-ice" is some reference I'm not getting.

I'm just guessing, but I think Marter's use of "plotice" was a short hand way of saying "plot police", which I'm guessing is basically something happening for no reason other than to move the story along. That's just pure guessing on my part, though.

The_Waspman:No Twilight in the worst list..? Thats kinda surprising, but then again, I'm guessing you may not have seen it.

Twilight wasn't there because it had such a cathartic 20 minutes and the fact that it had the balls to troll its core audience makes me respect it a great deal. Also, I don't inherently hate the Twilight films. I liked all of the odd-numbered ones (to varying degrees, but I wouldn't mind seeing them again).

The only one of those that I saw was Looper. It didn't make my Top 10, and therefore doesn't get a mention.

thebobmaster:I'm just guessing, but I think Marter's use of "plotice" was a short hand way of saying "plot police", which I'm guessing is basically something happening for no reason other than to move the story along. That's just pure guessing on my part, though.

I really couldn't understand how Hunger Games could make either list, but then I remember it's Marter I'm dealing with. Also I think you made a mistake is your Raven summary, unless "plot-ice" is some reference I'm not getting.

I'm just guessing, but I think Marter's use of "plotice" was a short hand way of saying "plot police", which I'm guessing is basically something happening for no reason other than to move the story along. That's just pure guessing on my part, though.

I thought he had just misspelled police, considering the film revolves around Poe trying to figure out a murder mystery based on his poems

Shocksplicer:The Hunger Games was definitely the worst movie I saw this year

Why?

Mostly, they tried to make an MA15+ or R18+ movie into an M15+ movie, so they couldn't show and kids being killed. Which is what most of the movie was about. In order to cover this up, they just got the cameraman drunk enough that the audience couldn't see what was happening at any point. This alone was enough to make it a bad movie.

In addition to this, the acting was wooden and it was visually very uninteresting.

Shocksplicer:The Hunger Games was definitely the worst movie I saw this year

Why?

Mostly, they tried to make an MA15+ or R18+ movie into an M15+ movie, so they couldn't show and kids being killed. Which is what most of the movie was about. In order to cover this up, they just got the cameraman drunk enough that the audience couldn't see what was happening at any point. This alone was enough to make it a bad movie.

In addition to this, the acting was wooden and it was visually very uninteresting.

I thought they handled it well, I don't think seeing a bunch of kids mutilated would have added to the experience in any way shape or form. This is coming from someone who though the human centipede was quite funny.

Mostly, they tried to make an MA15+ or R18+ movie into an M15+ movie, so they couldn't show and kids being killed. Which is what most of the movie was about. In order to cover this up, they just got the cameraman drunk enough that the audience couldn't see what was happening at any point. This alone was enough to make it a bad movie.

In addition to this, the acting was wooden and it was visually very uninteresting.

I thought they handled it well, I don't think seeing a bunch of kids mutilated would have added to the experience in any way shape or form. This is coming from someone who though the human centipede was quite funny.

Regardless of whether or not you want to see kids dying or not, making it so that you literally can't see what is happening at any point is NOT an improvement.

Regardless of whether or not you want to see kids dying or not, making it so that you literally can't see what is happening at any point is NOT an improvement.

I thought the film was great, though I never read the book, watched a trailer beforehand or read anything about it before seeing it. I just watched it randomly as we missed the showing of what we went to watch. So from my point of view I did not feel it was doing what you are saying, but the again I was watching it as a "hunger games noob", no expectations.

Edit - At no point did I feel I was missing anything due to camera work.